Summary: If You Don't Make Waves You'll Drown

Review and Analysis of Anderson's Book

BusinessNews Publishing

• Publisher: Must Read Summaries
• Year: 2016
• Topic: Business
• eBook ISBN:
  9782806247148
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

The must-read summary of Dave Anderson's book: `If You Don't Make Waves You'll Drown: 10 Hard-Charging Strategies for Leading in Politically Correct Times`.

This complete summary of the ideas from Dave Anderson's book `If You Don't Make Waves You'll Drown` shows that political correctness is draining the health and vitality out of many businesses because it encourages managers to patronise weak performers, thus dis-incentivising employees to achieve more. It also praises conformity rather than innovation. Instead, companies should create an environment where high-performance is celebrated and exceptional results are applauded. This summary puts forward a radical program to get the full potential of every employee. It suggests that executives stop trying to make everyone happy: always treat people with respect, but give them expectations and celebrate those who meet those expectations. Always be honest with people, and be specific in your feedback. Never give across the board bonuses: they should be performance-based. Think about your own role as a thermostat rather than a thermometer – you should be controlling the business environment, not passively standing by. Ideally, business processes should be structured to avoid burnout, so that you don’t sacrifice long-term productivity for short-term speed. This summary sets out a manifesto for improving company performance and increasing morale. By following this plan, employees will be motivated to perform better and will reap benefits themselves.

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To learn more, read `If You Don't Make Waves You'll Drown` and motivate your employees to increase the performance of your business. 

Summary of If You Don’t Make Waves You’ll Drown (Dave Anderson)

1. Don’t worry about trying to make everyone happy.

Don’t be a wimp. Instead of taking polls to see what people think, lead from the front. Hold people accountable for their actual results achieved, not just their good intentions.

A “wimp” is defined in the dictionary as someone who is weak, feeble or ineffective. Obviously, this is not something to aspire to, and yet in today’s business climate of political correctness, many business leaders are afraid to speak or act bluntly for fear of offending others.

The greatest leaders in history were never afraid to speak out. To be more precise, if you look at those leaders who have changed things for the better, all of them:

• Discriminated against laziness in favor of work and results.
• Were prepared to fire those who didn’t get with their programs.
• Rewarded their high achievers generously and publicly.
• Were willing to be personally accountable for their own results.

None of these are the actions of a wimp. History lauds gutsy leaders who set audacious goals and then moved heaven and earth to achieve them. The politically correct leaders who play it safe don’t even get a mention in the same breath.

Politically incorrect leaders don’t try and make people happy. Instead, they get things done. To do likewise:

1. Discriminate openly – give your best to your highest achievers. Make sure they have everything they need to succeed, even if that means diverting resources from those who are lazy, complacent or just plain mediocre. Get the best out of your people. And always let people know exactly where they stand with you.
2. Take some risks – and forget trying to emulate someone else’s “best practices”. Instead, do something original, create an edge and then exploit it for all it’s worth. Welcome innovation, ignore your industry dogmas and do the impressive and noteworthy.
3. Hold your people accountable for their results – starting with yourself. Set out your expectations unambiguously and with clarity. Let people know what you expect, when they will be evaluated and how their results will be measured. Then you need to reward those who achieve what you specify generously. Treat your people with respect as you evaluate their actual results achieved, but be honest and direct in your evaluations. Great people need to have this feedback just as much as your nonperformers.
4. Keep everyone out of the gray areas – so they don’t have to guess what you’re thinking. The best ways to do this are:
   • Provide feedback as soon as possible.
   • Be consistent with your feedback, more than once a year.
   • Be brutally honest and candid at all times.
   • Always let people know what you’re thinking.
   • Be specific.
   • Give your feedback face-to-face if at all possible.
   • Remember disappointment is easier to handle than anxiety.

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”

– John F. Kennedy

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

– Thoreau

2. Forget entitlements – Build a vibrant meritocracy.

Entitlements are the result of PC thinking. Forget that. Instead, build a meritocracy where everyone earns what they get. This is the best way to leverage your strengths and weed out weaknesses. If you don’t do this, your best people will leave.

If you tolerate your poor performers, you waste your organization’s resources. Your top performers will first take note of this, then stagnate and ultimately leave to go somewhere where exceptional performance is lauded and sought after. You can’t strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

The funny thing is people usually don’t set out to treat everyone the same. This thinking just creeps in gradually over time until it reaches a disastrous stage. As little lapses occur, people gradually become desensitized and the problems just keep snowballing. Eventually, they reach a stage where a major commitment of financial and human resources is required to get everything back on track.

To avoid this, build a meritocracy – an environment where people are treated on their merits rather than on what they think they are entitled to. To do this:

1. Set the performance bar high – make certain everyone knows what is expected of them. Be scrupulously fair though, and give people everything they have earned. Hold people responsible for their actions.
2. Look at your own role as being that of a thermostat rather than a thermometer – meaning you’re active and influence the environment rather than passively measuring what’s going on. Be proactive in shaping the culture your organization should have rather than merely working with whatever you find.
3. Be open...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Book Presentation
• Summary of If You Don’t Make Waves You’ll Drown (Dave Anderson)
• About the Summary Publisher
• Copyright